Baron Bane: LPTO

Baron Bane
LPTO
Stupid Dream
2011-04-20

It often sounds as if Baron Bane includes fast-paced songs on second album LPTO because it has to. It’s not as if the tempo is an absolute barometer of quality — to be sure, songs like “Transience” and “Love.Cure.All” are interesting and catchy in a latter-period Beth Gibbons-fronted Silverchair sort of way — but the band so comfortably ease into the slower tracks that it’s easy to wish it would stick with them exclusively.

“Midthing” is a graceful, sweeping thing composed of hollow synths and violins; Ida Long’s understated, pitch-perfect vocals and a piano pulse that gives it the feel of a modern-day “Something I Can Never Have”, albeit a smoothed-over, gentle take on the Nine Inch Nails cut. “Your Words” is just as strong, starting gently but building to a tremendous neo-classical climax that holds an incredible amount of power for something that lacks percussion entirely. Even the decidedly mid-tempo “Sordid Eyes”, a song that shares more than a little in common with Failure’s “Stuck on You”, relaxes into its beat enough to position itself as a perfect transition from the more energetic first half of LPTO into the more contemplative second. LPTO is truly a lovely listen front to back; while its energetic moments drift unassumingly by, however, it is the quiet that resonates the longest.

RATING 7 / 10